Related papers: Signal Processing in the PVLAS Experiment
Recently the PVLAS collaboration reported the observation of a rotation of linearly polarized laser light induced by a transverse magnetic field - a signal being unexpected within standard QED. Two mechanisms have been proposed to explain…
Recently the PVLAS collaboration reported the observation of a rotation of linearly polarized laser light induced by a transverse magnetic field -- a signal being unexpected within standard QED. In this review, we emphasize two mechanisms…
The fundamental theory of quantum electrodynamics predicts the vacuum to resemble a polarizable medium. This gives rise to effective nonlinear interactions between electromagnetic fields and light-by-light scattering phenomena. We study the…
A long-standing prediction of quantum electrodynamics, yet to be experimentally observed, is the interaction between real photons in vacuum. As a consequence of this interaction, the vacuum is expected to become birefringent and dichroic if…
When photons propagate in vacuum they may fluctuate into matter pairs thus allowing the vacuum to be polarised. This linear effect leads to charge screening and renormalisation. When exposed to an intense background field a nonlinear effect…
Although quantum mechanics (QM) and quantum field theory (QFT) are highly successful, the seemingly simplest state -- vacuum -- remains mysterious. While the LHC experiments are expected to clarify basic questions on the structure of QFT…
Vacuum polarization (VP) is investigated for the interaction of a polarized $\gamma$-ray beam of GeV photons with a counterpropagating ultraintense laser pulse. In a conventional setup of a vacuum birefringence measurement, a VP signal is…
Vacuum birefringence is one of the most striking predictions of strong field quantum electrodynamics: Probe photons traversing a strong field region can indirectly sense the applied "pump" electromagnetic field via quantum fluctuations of…
The PVLAS collaboration has observed rotation of the plane of polarization of light passing through a magnetic field in vacuum and has proposed that the effect is due to interaction of photons with very light spin-zero bosons. This would…
We discuss the experimental techniques used to date for measuring the changes in polarization state of a laser produced by a strong transverse magnetic field acting in a vacuum. We point out the likely artifacts that can arise in such…
When exposed to intense electromagnetic fields, the quantum vacuum is expected to exhibit properties of a polarisable medium akin to a weakly nonlinear dielectric material. Various schemes have been proposed to measure such vacuum…
Precision experiments exploiting low-energy photons may yield information on particle physics complementary to experiments at high-energy colliders, in particular on new very light and very weakly interacting particles, predicted in many…
The quantum electrodynamical vacuum polarization effects arising in the collision of a high-energy proton beam and a strong, linearly polarized laser field are investigated. The probability that laser photons merge into one photon by…
Quantum vacuum fluctuations give rise to effective non-linear interactions between electromagnetic fields. A prominent signature of quantum vacuum nonlinearities driven by macroscopic fields are signal photons differing in characteristic…
Vacuum fluctuations give rise to effective nonlinear interactions between electromagnetic fields. These generically modify the characteristics of light traversing a strong-field region. X-ray free-electron lasers constitute a particularly…
We show that a laser beam can be diffracted by a more concentrated light pulse due to quantum vacuum effects. We compute analytically the intensity pattern in a realistic experimental configuration, and discuss how it can be used to measure…
These notes provide a pedagogical introduction to the theoretical study of vacuum polarization effects in strong electromagnetic fields as provided by state-of-the-art high-intensity lasers. Quantum vacuum fluctuations give rise to…
PVLAS is an experiment which aims at the direct detection of photon-field scattering: it employs optical methods and a large rotating superconducting magnet, and its large, compact structure is affected by both mechanical and electrical…
The invention of laser immediately enabled us to detect nonlinearities of photon interaction in matter, as manifested for example by Franken et al.'s detection of second harmonic generation and the excitation of the Brillouin forward…
Recently, the PVLAS collaboration has reported evidence for an anomalously large rotation of the polarization of light generated in vacuum in the presence of a transverse magnetic field. This may be explained through the production of a new…